IVC increasing vinyl floor production

IVC Group's U.S. sheet vinyl plant in Dalton, Ga., will boost manufacturing operations to 24 hours a day, seven days a week just ahead of plans to begin construction this spring on an $80 million facility that will make luxury vinyl plank and tile (LVT) at the site.

On March 1, IVC will move beyond the production of fiberglass sheet vinyl six days a week at the manufacturing plant that opened in 2011.

Then, soon after, the company will break ground on a 300,000-square LVT plant expected to create 150-225 jobs after it opens, probably in early 2015.

IVC also opened an LVT facility in Belgium in 2012.

Another plant is needed to meet demand and position the company as a leader in the LVT category on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Jan Vergote, CEO of IVC US, was quoted as saying in the Chattanooga Times Free Press back in November, when plans for the latest facility were announced.

The location wasn't known until recently, however. The company was wooed with incentives by cities in several states before deciding to build on its investment in Dalton, where it reportedly received tax breaks worth $3.5 million on its existing facility.

North Georgia is considered the home of U.S. flooring production and several companies are investing in the fast-growing market of LVT, which replicates the look of hardwood planks, mosaic tile and stone.

Shaw Industries Group Inc. recently announced plans to get out of the area rug business, retool its plant in Ringgold, and reopen it as a vinyl plant in early 2015. And Mannington Mills Inc. is doubling the size of its LVT facility in Madison.

IVC boasts that its Dalton plant has the longest sheet vinyl line in the world to supply the North American flooring market, which it expects to garner more of with the LVT plant.